Pastor’s Newsletter

We have been looking at the book of Acts. I think we Christians can pick up on three things in the book of Acts:

First, we are called to be Christ’s Witness to the ends of the world.

Second, we are called to be faithful to share Christ in the midst of persecution.

Finally, I think we have seen that we are called to strengthen and encourage new converts to the faith.

Let’s think about the graciousness of God, to use the likes of us, to share His Good News.

• The wonderful thing about being in Christ is that we are a new creation in Christ. We are forgiven and made new. In our new life we are called to reach out to those who are still separated from God because of their sin. To go make disciples, simply means to call them into a relationship with Christ. We are called to share the Good News of Christ’s death for our sin, His burial and resurrection. To think that we can go from one day, cursing the Lord, to the next day trusting in Jesus for our sins, to the next telling others how they can find freedom from sin in God’s Son. What graciousness. God has given to us, though we don’t deserve it, the ability to be a part of taking His Gospel to the lost people in our lives. 

We need to remember our commission to evangelize isn’t contingent on whether someone receives the Gospel with faith in Jesus.

• We have been commanded to share the Gospel. Jesus says in Matthew 28:18, that He has all authority. He then proceeds to say in verse 19 building on the stated fact that Jesus has the authority to give this command, that the disciples are to go and make disciples.
• We have seen in Acts that more than just the disciples who met with Christ on the Mountain top in Matthew 28, have shared the Good News. In Acts 7, Stephen the first martyr and Acts 8, Phillip with the Ethiopian Eunuch both share the Gospel of Good News.
• Stephen demonstrated that He understood that He was called to share Christ, even though it angered the crowd. Stephen was willing to share the Gospel even though it cost him his life. Peter and John and the rest of the Apostles in Acts 4 and 5, demonstrated a desire to share the Gospel no matter what the consequences. Paul and Barnabas didn’t stop evangelizing even though they were pretty kicked out of Antioch, Iconium, and even Lystra. No, they persevered and went on to Derbe in Acts 14.
• If we have been called to call people into a relationship with Christ that doesn’t change based on how we are received. We are still supposed to plant the seed; to evangelize. Sometimes it is best we move on and leave the rest to God. But we shouldn’t be deterred from sharing, just because someone doesn’t want to hear it.

The Great Commission isn’t faithfully carried out unless we teach the new converts to obey the Lord’s teaching.

• We need to recognize that Christ doesn’t just limit the Great Commission Call to getting someone to say, “Yes to Jesus!” We are called to take those who place their faith in Jesus on a journey from being new spiritual babies to weaned and mature Christians. Just like we wouldn’t recommend leaving a baby to feed itself, or teach itself, we cannot leave new Christians to do that. We are in need of taking that Christian under our wing and teaching him or her how to live for Christ.

Practical Tips for Evangelism and Discipleship

• To borrow an expression from a more famous than I, Pastor: “Outreach begins with upreach!” meaning the first step is we need to pray about our evangelism. We need to pray that God would give us the Words to say and an opportunity to share it.
• We need to be following God in our lives. One of the quickest ways to fail at evangelism is to not be living for the Lord. People will see through the smoke and mirrors, if your calling them to turn from the sins to the Living Lord Jesus and you haven’t turned from yours. You will be diminishing the name of Christ, if you aren’t first trying to follow Christ. Does this mean you have to be perfect? No! No! No! It does mean you have to be seeking to follow Christ daily in all aspects of your life. Who knows, the change someone sees in you, might spark the gospel conversation.

• • We need to be familiar with, and preferably memorize, the scriptures we are going to use to teach the following points:
  • Man’s sinfulness (Romans 3:23)
  • Man’s consequences for sin (Romans 6:23)
  • God’s Love and Sacrifice for our sins (Romans 5:8)
  • God’s Salvation through believing or having faith in Jesus Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9)     

• We need to try and befriend people with the goal of evangelizing to them. Studies have shown that it is more effective to witness to someone whom you have a relationship with.
• You might pick up several different evangelistic tracts and read them thoroughly. Maybe you will find a good starting point or a perspective on what makes the Good News, the Good News.

God Bless,

-Pastor James